The use of magnetic recording media, such as diskettes, to record computer programs has become extremely widespread in recent years. Conventionally diskettes are characterized, inter alia, that the contents thereof may be copied readily on any conventional diskette drive and associated computer.
The ease of copying the contents of diskettes and other magnetic recording media causes serious problems to the developers and owners of proprietary information which is stored on such media who seek to restrict the reproduction and distribution of the information content of the diskettes, as to customers who have paid a license or user fee.
From a legal standpoint, efforts have been made to draft and enforce limited use licenses which purport to restrict unauthorized copying and dissemination. In practice, however, enforcement is nearly impossible, due to the enormous numbers of diskettes in circulation and the extremely large numbers of customers involved.
Efforts have been made to prevent copying of information from diskettes by encoding thereon instructions or information which normally prevent writing of the contents of the diskette on another diskette. Although such techniques are in relatively widespread use, computer programs have been developed and are being distributed which overcome these write-prevent instructions.